A care transitions management program operated by Sun Health since 2011 has significantly reduced hospital readmissions for nearly 12,000 Medicare patients, resulting in $14.8 million in savings to the Medicare program.

Using home visits as a core strategy, the Sun Health Care Transitions program was a top performer in CMS’s recently concluded Community-Based Care Transitions (CBCT) demonstration project, which was launched in 2012 to explore new solutions for reducing hospital readmissions, improving quality and achieving measurable savings for Medicare.

A study released last week by Medical Group Management Association found that median pay for primary care physicians (PCPs) grew 5 percent last year to $212,840, capping a five-year increase of 16.7 percent from 2007 to 2011. While an actual PCP paycheck pales next to a specialist’s, of note is MGMA’s finding that PCP compensation grew at a faster rate than specialist pay over the last five years.

The reimbursement stage is being set for patient-centered care delivery models like the patient-centered medical home and the ACO that put a premium on care coordination, with many payors offering a combination of traditional fee for service (FFS) payment topped off with a care coordination fee, with possibly a little shared savings thrown in to sweeten the payment pot.

And earlier this month, CMS proposed payment increases for family physicians of approximately 7 percent and for other practitioners providing primary care services of between 3 and 5 percent. As it has in other initiatives resulting from healthcare reform, the proposed rule offers additional financial incentives for care coordinated during critical transitions in care, such as when a patient is discharged from the hospital:

For 2013, CMS is proposing for the first time to explicitly pay for the care required to help a patient transition back to the community following a discharge from a hospital or nursing facility. The proposals calls for CMS to make a separate payment to a patient’s community physician or practitioner to coordinate the patient’s care in the 30 days following a hospital or skilled nursing facility stay.

Dr. Carrie Nelson, medical director of special projects for Advocate Physician Partners (APP), lauds CMS’s proposal. “It’s a long time coming that that kind of recognition has translated into reimbursement for primary care physicians,” notes Dr. Nelson, a family physician herself. “I know first-hand the amount of work that goes into making sure your patients aren’t falling through the cracks and getting the care they need in an efficient manner, especially after a hospitalization or major clinical situation.”

However, it’s critical that those dollars given to primary care for care coordination actually go toward that function, Dr. Nelson cautioned, and that quality measures are established in parallel with this funding. “There’s a risk that these funds could be seen as ‘new money,’ she said. “I think primary care feels undervalued and underpaid, and there is some validity to that. But at the same time, reimbursement for care coordination may not translate into actual care coordination unless there are some quality measures associated with that in order to make sure that the dollars go toward the purpose for which they were intended.”

With eight years of clinical integration (CI) under its belt, involving more than 4,000 physicians and 10 hospitals, APP can speak from experience. Its nationally recognized CI effort has achieved record performance in almost all measured areas, resulting in improved patient outcomes and significant cost savings. The CI program laid the groundwork for a value-based payment contract between APP and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. Dr. Nelson will share lessons learned from contract implementation during a July 18, 2012 webinar, Bending the Cost Curve with a Commercial Value-Based Payment Contract.

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